Florida Deputy suspended for "rough arrest"

A sheriff's deputy was suspended for manhandling a sobbing woman who was speeding to a hospital to see her ailing father and didn't want to wait for him to write a ticket.
After Deputy Kevin Stabins stopped Melissa Langston a second time in the hospital parking lot, video from his cruiser's dashboard shows him yanking her from her car and slamming her against it.
'Please let me see my dad, ' she cries as he handcuffs her. 'If it was your dad ...'
Stabins cuts her off, saying, 'Now you're not going to see him, 'cause you're going to jail.'
Stabins, 29, was suspended for five days without pay for using excessive force. Hillborough County Sheriff David Gee signed off on the suspension Tuesday, and Stabins will begin serving it on May 22.
Charges against Langston, 37, were dropped.
'I think (Stabins) understands that he was wrong and could have handled it better,' Gee told The Tampa Tribune for Thursday's editions. 'On both sides, really, it could have been done better.'
Stabins first stopped Langston after clocking her driving 63 mph in a 35-mph zone near University Community Hospital in November.
The video shows her telling the deputy that her father had suffered a heart attack and had driven himself to the emergency room.
Stabins returned to his car to write a ticket, but after several minutes, she drove into the hospital parking lot. After a short pursuit, she brakes, and he strides up to her, saying, 'That was not smart.'
'I need to get there. I'm sorry but _ oh, my god!' she says.
As he tries to pull her out of the car, her foot slips off the brake and the car begins to roll forward.
'Put it in park. Put it in park. Get out of the car. Hands behind your back. Now you're going to jail,' Stabins says.
He gets Langston out of the car, put her in an arm lock that left bruises, spun her around, and slammed her against her car's hood hard enough her feet leave the ground.
Her father, William Johnston, stayed in the hospital six days, his wife, Mary Johnston, told the St. Petersburg Times for Thursday's editions. He went home with two stents in his arteries

The first time, why didn't she just ask for an escort to the hospital?

"From this day to the ending of the world, but we in it shall be remembered; we few, we happy few, we band of brothers, for he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother, and the gentleman now a bed shall think themselves accursed they were not here, and hold their manhood cheap" -- Henry V

Fox news has been running this video clip over and over. The talking heads are portraying it as "Shocking" police abuse. Please!!!!!!!!!!

The woman was driving nearly twice the speed limit! Endangering her and any other drivers on the road. And for what? So she could get to the hospital a few minutes sooner to wait to see what the doctors say about her dad? Now if he was in the car with her maybe that would have been different.

And the cop was running her license, you can hear it on the tape. He was checking to see if the car was stolen or if she had outstanding warrants. It would have took 2 minutes and she would have been on her way. But she chose to speed off. He could have been a little bit easier when arresting her but other than that I don't see anything he did wrong. he was doing his duty.

So by saying that because she had a reason for breaking the law that the cop should have just let her go, that is nuts.

By that reasoning a guy that robs a liquer store because he is out of work and his kids are hungery, he should be let go too.
"Oh , you have an excuse for robbing the store, oh, Ok, sir go ahead, sorry."

She chose to speed, she chose to run from the cop. So I have no sympathy for her. She brought it all on by her actions.

"Today, we need a nation of Minutemen, citizens who are not only prepared to take arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as the basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom." - John F. Kennedy

"You took the good things for granted-now you must earn them again. For every right that you cherish, you have a duty that you must fulfill. For every hope that you entertain, you have a task that you must perform. For every good that you wish to preserve, you will have to sacrifice your comfort and ease. There is nothing for nothing any longer." -George Washington

When the police are simply doing their job, she should have waited. In my state, 22 MPH+ plus is reckless driving and a trip to jail. Nothing pisses of a cop more than someone driving away from them. A little rough, but she got what was coming by her actions.

Oh, were doomed when this catches on and the though police take over. 1984...give us a tv screen and big brother will teach us all we need to know.

"This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector" - Plato

the cop was in the right IMHO, but he is in deep $h!t eyes are every where cops get less than seconds to make a decision and the rest of the world can judge that decision for the rest of time... it's a fine line LEOs walk.

I find it disturbing that a peace officer would resort to that kind of aggression over a speeding violation. 22+ over is fast but not worthy of violence. I see it as a glimpse of our future police state. I never saw the clip.

]By that reasoning a guy that robs a liquer store because he is out of work and his kids are hungery, he should be let go too.
"Oh , you have an excuse for robbing the store, oh, Ok, sir go ahead, sorry."

I didn't think he "roughed" her up too much. He pulled her out of the car and put her over the trunk to contain and cuff her. It was a bit heavy handed but after her running from him, understandable.

I did a stint as an LEO years ago. A small town Barney Fife type job, but we had a lot of through town traffic. And a short time in bail enforcement. You hear every excuse in the book and when something happens the adrenalin is pumping and you get riled up.

But I don't condone heavy handed police abuse either. I have been on the recieving end as well.

After a night of alcohol saturation, ten foot tall and bullet proof, I told and Oklahoma City cop that he wasn't big enough to take me to jail. While that may have been true, he had a lot of friends! They made the Rodney King beating look like a kids spanking. It was like the country song "An attitude adjustment" I was trying to get the door open so I could get in the back of that police car.

But, again, my actions brought about the results.

"Today, we need a nation of Minutemen, citizens who are not only prepared to take arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as the basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom." - John F. Kennedy

"You took the good things for granted-now you must earn them again. For every right that you cherish, you have a duty that you must fulfill. For every hope that you entertain, you have a task that you must perform. For every good that you wish to preserve, you will have to sacrifice your comfort and ease. There is nothing for nothing any longer." -George Washington